Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Things I'm Not

I've discovered something this month. I am not a category length writer. I tried. Really. But no matter how much I plotted, cut, sliced, diced, cajoled, whipped, threatened or stamped my foot my creative brain just does not tell stories in a shorter length. I'm a single title writer. So, while Paula Eykelhof said Finding Home would be a perfect fit for SuperRomance if I was willing to shrink it to 70-75,000 words and even though I may be shooting myself in the foot by going against this, I'm stretching it out to single-title length. I just think it's ultimately a better story with the sub-plots kept in and the longer length allowed for me to develop the story the way I envision it. I think I need to go with my instincts on this one.

Meanwhile, the snow has yet to fall in my neck of the woods. Which I'm eternally grateful for however it does put a crimp in the snowboarding plans for the big 4-0. But I have another idea. I'm going out on Friday and buying myself an LCD monitor to replace the minuscule 14" model I've been using for nearly 15 years now.. I can't wait.

I spent today cleaning and organizing my writing room. My BIL made me a tower shelf for Christmas which I think I can store my manuscripts on. It's still up at my parents, so I need to get it down here hopefully this weekend so I can finish organizing. But you can see the floor again, and all my current manuscripts are in neat little piles instead of strewn about the room in a haphazard fashion that was beginning to make me hyperventilate. I cleaned out my bookshelf and am using that for research and writing books only. I went through my current read and TBR books and kept my favorites from the 'read' pile and the ones I knew I would definitely read from the TBR file. The others have been boxed up and I'm going to call around to different women's shelters to see if they take donations.

And my GH entries arrived today. I have five entries and I'm really excited to get started. This is my first time judging the GH, although I've judged a couple of other contests previously. I'm going to sit down tonight and go through the instructions.

Got to go with your instincts. If it won't fit, it won't fit. No sense gutting a book to make it fit. Its like cutting off your toes to fit in a smaller shoe size, it might fit, but you won't be able to walk.

I'm with you, I struggle with category books. I really wish I could write them. I use to, but I found my imagination keeps branching out more than it should. I'm not good with keeping it under control. Need to really work on that.